When FP Burns, Finn Will Learn
by Juri.DP
Summary: His intention hadn't been to talk to her, but, he supposed, he couldn't fool himself.


**So...I wrote this before 'Breezy' aired, but I was determined to post this on my birthday. Use those imaginations like the champs you are!**

**And we shall mark this date! 06/09/14**

**Enjoy!**

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Jake looked out the window of the Treehouse. It was getting dark, and he had a bad feeling about tonight.

"Finn, I'm not so sure you should be doing this."

"It's cool, man," Finn assured, packing his bag with veiled eagerness. "It's just an evening walk. Nothing strange there."

Jake grumbled, pulling on his skin in odd ways. "I dunno, man. You're just gonna gronk up your emotions again."

"Nah, dude." Finn stood, securing his backpack around his shoulders. Jake watched as the boy ran to a mirror and adjusted his hat.

He didn't like this setup.

For crying out loud, Finn had _showered_ these last few days.

With _soap_.

"Finn..." Jake wanted to reason with him but didn't know how to get through.

The hero laughed, flexing the temporary robotic arm (that was encased around his flower); he's been polishing it every day. "You don't needa be so worried, grandma." He smiled excitedly, jumping down the tree hole with a 'hup'. "Don't wait up!"

Jake turned to the window again, seeing Finn run off to the forest. This wasn't going to end well, but he couldn't force Finn to do the right thing. He's made a lot of questionable decisions ever since the break up, so he had to learn for himself.

Instead of worrying, Jake turned to BMO for a comforting video game and called Lady.

* * *

This was only a chance he was taking. Flambo had told him about her odd habits, so it was something to check in to.

At least once a month, maybe, Flame Princess would go to the forest near the treehouse, and maybe...

Just maybe...

Finn walked through the forest joyfully, swinging his newly acquired sword. He was going to take this as the ultimate sign. There was no guarantee she would be there on this particular day, so, if he saw her, then he should at least give it one more shot. If he saw nothing at all – nothing that indicated she had been there or would be there – then that would be it.

But he was sure it would happen.

He knew it would.

He laughed, too fueled on excitement and anticipation, and began searching the forest.

For two hours, he saw nothing and no one. It was then that his anxiety and doubts began to set in. The plan was to see the sign – if it was there at all – but what if he got the urge to act upon it right then and there? If Flame Princess was within his reach, he was sure he'd talk to her. That wouldn't be wise because talking to the ladies had become a mass of embarrassing screw ups, but he knew how impulsive he was.

He knew how impulsive he wanted to be.

He pulled on his hat nervously, and that's when he saw it.

A dim light could be seen up ahead, slightly masked by the trees.

That was the sign.

That's all he needed to go on, but Finn began to follow the light, keeping all sounds to a minimum. As the light grew brighter, he smiled nervously – excited – anxious. Then he was finally able to see.

She stood there, back turned to him, as little balls of fire floated around her. Her arms were delicately held at her sides, her hands gingerly poised. Slowly, she raised her right arm, and the tiny flames followed, rising higher into the air. She did the same with her left until an array of fire hovered over her head.

"Take the pain, take the memories," she muttered, swirling the flames. "Restore and heal this broken part of me."

The flames turned a bright pink.

"No," she muttered, frustrated. "Restore. _Heal_."

Steadily, the flames became a dark purple.

She stopped her spinning, opening her arms to the sky; the flames swirled into one giant ball. She took hold of it, pulling it into herself. She changed to the shade of dark purple for a moment before she released it, sending a visible heat wave from her body. A burst of fire exploded into the air, which resulted in a rain of sparkles twinkling down.

"Whoa," Finn muttered, dazed.

Flame Princess gasped, whirling around. "...Finn?"

He laughed, stepping forward. "Heya, FP."

She squinted. "What happened to your arm?"

He looked at it, moving it around. "I lost it trying to catch my dad."

"You have a dad?"

"Yeah. He was frozen in the Citadel forever, but I freed him..." He frowned, raising a brow as he stared at the grass. "He ran away to space."

"Whoa... That's rough."

He shrugged. "Dads, am I right?"

She laughed briefly. There was an awkward silence that followed. To her knowledge, they met purely by accident, and she wasn't entirely sure if that warranted a conversation. When Finn made no move to continue on his way, she finally spoke again.

"So...what are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know... Taking a walk."

"Oh. Okay." She paused. "Well... Bye."

"Wait, hold on!" Finn called, following her. "What are you doing so far away from Flame Kingdom? Don't you, like...need to rule and stuff?"

She turned to him. "Yeah, but, I need some time to myself. Cinnamon Bun takes over when I'm gone."

"Do you come here often? We could...you know, hang out."

"Actually, I just come here when I need to get stuff off my chest. I don't have a lot of free time."

"Oh, what? That's banana bread." He smiled, feigning coming up with a spur of the moment idea. "Why not stay for a while? CB is watching the FK, so you could chill here so we can puh-lay."

"Sorry, Finn, I have a kingdom to run." She stopped to think, smiling. "Why don't you come with me? You haven't visited since my dad tried to overthrow me."

"Yeah..." He rubbed the back of his head with his robot arm, hurting himself more than anything. "I'm always busy."

"Oh, that's too bad. Well, you know, you're still welcome anytime."

Finn smiled. "Yeah, yeah, I know."

She smiled, waving, before turning to leave again.

He watched her. He got what he wanted – he saw her and things had felt normal.

Was that an even bigger sign?

There was no way for him to know for sure, but he became agitated.

"Uh... Flame Princess?"

She turned.

"How..._are _things with Cinnamon Bun? I mean...on a scale of one to ten, how serious are you taking this being 'your champion' jumbo?"

"Finn..." She looked away briefly, hugging herself. "Things with Cinnamon Bun are great. He's a very awesome friend."

"Friend-friend or...?"

She didn't want to believe the conversation was heading down this road, but, she supposed, a mutual talk was long overdue. The only problem was... She said everything she wanted to – she made it very clear that she had bigger responsibilities now. Why wasn't he able to think the same?

"I told you how I felt about 'us'."

"Yeah, I know, you did, and I get it, but..." He laughed nervously, his eyes uncomfortably shifting. "We had a lot of good times."

"Yeah, we did...but we're different. I feel different."

"You don't have to." Finn shook his arms, panicked. "It's possible to feel different but also feel the same."

"I've moved on, Finn."

His eyes softened, his mood draining at an exponential rate. "So...you and Cinnamon Bun-"

"No, not me and Cinnamon Bun." She sighed, frustrated. "I've moved on emotionally – I made myself better because of it. I think you'd be better if you moved on, too."

"I'm better – I'm totally better! I have this cool robotic arm now, and-and this sword!" He hastily presented it high in the air, but his clamp of a hand lost its grip, sending the weapon flying.

They both looked up in alarm – it was headed right for Flame Princess.

"Flame Princess!" Finn yelled, darting towards her. He wrapped his arm around her, shielding her with his body, just as her flames grew bright.

The sword disintegrated before it could even touch them.

"Finn!" the flame elemental yelled, shoving him away. "What are you doing?!"

"Wh-wha- no. I was just..."

She stared at him as he babbled, her fear and anger quickly turning to confusion. He had just been engulfed in her flames, yet, he wasn't horribly burned. At worst, he was singed here and there. Was the poison still affecting her this much? Even if it was, a flame like that would harm him.

"Finn," she said, cutting him off, "why aren't you hurt?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but a short laugh exited instead. "Princess Bubblegum... Um, she's been working on ways to make the Candy People fire resistant. She got scared over the whole Ice Kingdom being burned dow- I'm _really_ sorry about that, by the way."

"You let her _experiment_ on you?"

He scratched his head, frowning. "I mean...she doesn't know she is. She leaves her lab door wide open sometimes."

"Why would you do that?"

"Well, it was _wide _open, so I thought, 'Hey, why not go inside-'"

"Not that. Why would you tamper with your DNA?"

"I was-!" He had to stop himself; he was getting worked up again. Not really knowing why, he took off his hat – blonde hair barely touching his shoulders – and shoved it into his pocket. "Flame Princess, just hear me out. What I did to you... That was wrong – I get that, but I'm willing to change. Ice King – me and him are cool now. And-and my lying... I don't do it to hurt people anymore."

"Finn, I'm not looking for a relationship."

"That's okay! See, maybe we're just too young, you know? But maybe we can try again next week."

"Next...week?"

"You told me you wanted honesty, right? Well, here it is. I'm..." He frowned, straightening his posture as best he could despite the coloring of his cheeks. "I'm not over you. I made a mistake, but I want to change – I'm willing to change my genetic makeup for you! If you just give me another chance, I promise I won't ever hurt you again."

"That's sweet and all, but... Finn, I never wanted you to change. I liked the you I always knew – the you that was carefree and lively. I can't like _you_, but I know I could never like a you that wasn't you."

"But...I can be me, too."

"You don't get it, Finn." She glanced to the side, seeing far beyond the horizon. "Look, I really have to go, but we can..." She sighed, shaking her head. "Honestly, I don't want to talk about this again. I just want to go back to being friends – you know. It'll be less awkward."

Finn's shoulders slumped, his eyes looking to the side. "Yeah... Less awkward."

"But...we're still cool, right?"

He looked at her, his eyes dead. "Honestly?"

"Honestly."

"We're...luke warm."

* * *

Jake was fully engaged in his game, yelling through the phone at Lady of his successes and failures. When the front door opened, he didn't notice, but the screen and phone suddenly went blank.

"BMO! What the stuff?!"

"Finn is home!" BMO yelled, jumping off the table and running towards the boy who had entered, phone and controller lagging behind.

Jake looked up before flopping on the couch. "That was fast."

"Yeah..." Finn dragged himself to the couch with BMO firmly latched onto his sock. He sat down, slumping to an extreme degree.

"Did something happen?"

"I've tried being honest twice...and it still gets me nowhere."

"You just need to be patient." Jake wrapped himself around Finn's neck, morphing into a scarf. "Ladies are delicate leaves, dude. If you don't know how to handle 'em, they'll just crumble."

Finn groaned, slipping further into himself. "My heart feels like a leaf..."

"Mm... Maybe it's time to move on, dude. This isn't healthy."

"Yeah...maybe..." He perked up, thinking. "Unless...this is a test."

"Yeah, it's probably a... Wait, what?"

"Yeah! I mean, there's no way Cinnamon Bun can really be a champion of anything. She's testing me to see if I can prove myself, so _I_ can be her champion."

"...Dude, that's not what she's trying to do at-!"

"Alright!" Finn shot up to his feet, somehow flinging Jake off of him. "Tomorrow I start my training!" He ran to the ladder and scurried up to the bedroom.

BMO crawled over to the fallen Jake, sitting next to his head.

"I don't think Finn is a-ble to deal with his e-mo-tions in an a-ppro-pri-ate man-ner."

Jake nodded in agreement, frowning. "Yeah... But he's gotta learn to make the right choices on his own."


End file.
